Britain may give more millions more pounds to the controversial European Court of Human Rights, despite the Government's promise to rein it in. The Strasbourg court is asking countries to give it extra money in an attempt to deal with a backlog of 150,000 cases. Britain already pays £20million a year to the Council of Europe, which is responsible for the court, but is considering increasing this sum,
In an unusual move, the ECHR is even telling states that they can stipulate that they want their funds to be spent specifically on cases against them.
The request for more money has come just two months after ministers claimed to have secured lasting reform of the court at a summit in Brighton.
It is likely to prompt fresh claims that judges at Europe's most powerful human rights court are out of control, and that Britain should pull out of it.